[Hospital] Visiting Hours

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Straken
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[Hospital] Visiting Hours

Post by Straken »

Ruarc never did like hospitals or clinics all that much. They smelled off. He did not doubt their ability to heal, but he preferred the smell of herbs and ointments to rubbing alcohol and penicillin. All of this didn't really as the Druid was here to visit and check on Percy, just to see how he was doing after the few days since the incident occurred. So in his typical drab casual clothing he weaved his way through the hallways to his friend's room. It took only a few minutes to track down the room thanks to a helpful orderly, and once in front of the door he gave a short series of sturdy knocks on the door before grabbing the handle and peeking in to the room.

"Ya decent, Perce?" the Irishman asked as his head peeked inside.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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Ruarc got an eyeful of the room as he poked his head in. The hospital room itself was white and serene, clean and sanitized. The lack of staining or dirt might have even unsettled those mages native to forests, but not overly. There was an array of hospital equipment on the left, flanking a normal bed. By the corner, close to the ceiling, was a nice, flat-screen television that didn't seem to have used much, considering the remote was still resting onto the stand. A chair sat in the opposite corner, layered with blankets, and other items that almost made it seem like a small apartment within the room itself. Finally, a table, one that didn't seem to match the surroundings, seemed to have been brought in to accommodate 'Get-Well' presents.

Over the last week, the boy seemed to accumulate a great deal of gifts, a lot of them from classmates in their homeroom. Most of the items seemed to be the standard Japanese hospital variety. Flowers in little glass vases from groups of students pooling together for get-wells, though there did seem to be a few from individual students as well. The rest were books, mostly manga, stacked up on the table itself.

There were a few gifts that did stand out

Fethumroot flowers laid bunched up in a small pot, this was listed from a person named 'Cassandra'. To Ruarc's knowledge, Fethumroot was an alchemical substance in more rapid healing processes, which gave sense to the small jar of bones sitting next to it. Whoever 'William' was, he had sent enough dried bone to make a decent batch of potions dedicated to physical fortitude. Next to those two gifts, was a potato, which, despite the dust accumulating on it, was not appearing to rot in the open air. A small bit of twine connected a tag to the Potato, with a foreign, yet oddly familiar arcane symbol.

"Oh."

Percival had been talking to who looked to be the doctor attending him. The fellow was a bit unusual, instead regarding Ruarc with a mild plainness, he actually seemed to be holding on to some kind of suspicion in his eyes. Before either of the boys could speak, the man interjected quickly.

"I need a moment to talk to Mr. Caxton alone," concerned the Doctor, preparing to continue before Percival interrupted him.

"I think I'm done talking about my arm," answered the boy, miffing the Doctor mildly, seeing his patient taking not only a rebellious, but adult tone with him. However, he decided not to pursue it, and turned to the door.

Percival Caxton was fairly tired looking, but he seemed to be recovering. He offered a weak wave with his remaining arm, and then started to press the button on the edge of the bed to lift him up into a sitting position. The other sleeve of his gown was tied tightly into a knot next to his shoulder, to keep it from getting in the way. Despite it all, he seemed in an alright mood, and was adapting to the fact of having only one arm rather well.

"It's nice to see you," He spoke in a very indoor-voice, "You're the first person to visit besides people in black robes or white coats. Though, I can't blame you. They wouldn't let anyone see me until today."
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Straken
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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"So tha's what tha' was? Ah was wonderin' why Ah was havin' trouble," Ruarc responded to his friend as he fully entered the room and moved to grab a seat by the bed. "Sorry if I am interruptin', but Ah jus' wanted ta check on ya myself. Make sure you were healin' well enough, ya know, takin' yur fethumroot an' all." Ruarc laughed lightly as he seemed to be somewhat tense in his chair. In truth, the Irishman had been rather stressed ever since coming back to the real world. It stemmed from the book Percy gave him, and since his return home had looked through the book again to see if there wasn't more he could have done; even though everything had turned out well enough in the end. It stemmed from the guilt he felt when he had lied to Percy the night the Welshman trusted him as an adviser, and Ruarc still felt in the back of his mind that he may have been able to stop the incident altogether if he had only worked with Percy instead of hiding information. He intended to apologize to his friend.

"That was quite the adventure you lead us on," Ruarc continued, now speaking in Welsh for the boy's sake. "And that was an impressive act of mercy on your part as well, though I am not quite sure I would have gone as far as giving that woman my arm. At least now you can cut your spending on gloves in half, though."
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Kokuten
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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"What a happy day," answered Percy in grim deadpan, "If only I wore gloves. Honestly, I never intended for the whole thing to happen. I was trying to act independently for once, and ended up getting surprised. I never thought you all would get wrapped up in my own little matters." He offered a mild grin at Ruarc, and, without much to his voice, he continued, "I'm sure it was a fine moment to impress Raiko. You two are surprisingly close, considering her lofty nature."
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Straken
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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"I am still surprised myself. Wasn't planning on staying Japan all that long much less starting to date someone, and a well-to-do shrine maiden at that," Ruarc said, chuckling lightly as he nodded in agreement. "I know Miyuki was worrying about you something awful during the whole matter. Twenty quid says she'll be paying you a visit right quick if she hasn't already."

Settling in a bit more, Ruarc still felt some anxiety that he needed to get off his chest. "And the lot of us are right proud of how you handled yourself, but the nice thing about friends is that you can depend on them when you really need to," the Druid breathed a heavy sigh. "And that is another reason I paid a visit. I wanted to apologize to you. The time you paid me a visit and left me with some of your tomes, and you asked me to decipher that one, The End. I lied to you. The information I got from it very well could have been useful to you, and maybe it would not have come to what it did if I had just been straight with you. I thought such things would only cause you to stress about things that aren't worth stressing about, but if I had just known what was going to happen..." Ruarc trailed off in his confession, and then with another heavy sigh finished with, "Ancestors damn me and forgive me."
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Kokuten
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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Ruarc's confession seemed to fill the room with a cold, quiet air. The welshboy's fingers gripped gently against his sheets, and the anxiety filled the air like a foul stench to the mind's nose. Instead of speaking, he looked away from the Irishman, starring at the window. Judging by how he searched the wall, Percival seemed to seek to understand what exactly that confession meant, the information itself. There was a struggle in his eyes, perhaps in trying to find a consolation in return, or a resistance against lashing out against the druid. Did he feel betrayed? That seemed a little hard to tell. He only gripped his sheets tighter as he caught a reflection against the TV screen of the knot where his shoulder used to be. When the knuckles on his hand began to turn white, he let go.

"Let's say you did tell me of your discovery. That wouldn't have made me any more aware of Maelgwyn. I might've been able to identify the machine, but at that point, it was too late," spoke Percival, resolute in that answer, before regarding Ruarc with a kinder look than he might have expected. "At this point, it doesn't matter, what was said, and what wasn't. What matters is that when I was in it deep, you came to help me at great risk to yourself." That once clenched hand rested softly on Ruarc's shoulder. "Besides, keeping secrets is the nature of a mage."
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Straken
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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A heavy sense of shame settled as an ephemeral weight in Ruarc's chest as he saw the weight of his confessions effect his friend. He knew he deserved whatever words of reprimand that Percy may now have to say, and waited silently in his seat like a child caught misbehaving. The silence was what really got to him however, lending itself to the tension building within the room. That is what made it even more surprising when the harsh expected words never came, and instead Percy reasoned in defense of what the Druid had done. At that he was awestruck, and for a moment his head hung even lower; whether from relief, or his shame growing at not being called out on his actions.

After a few moments more Ruarc chuckled lightly in spite of himself and reached up to pat Percy's hand. "You really are a nice guy, ya know that?" the Irishman said as he looked over to Percy, the sight of the boy's missing arm not letting the weight in Ruarc's chest go away completely. "I suppose it is foolish to deal in what-ifs. Though I still wont let that justify my lying. It may be in the nature of mages to lie, but between friends we should be men first. I should have been honest with you. It may not have changed anything, but I was still in the wrong. Though if you are able to be the bigger man about it, then I suppose I can forgive myself with a catch; if you ever need my help or advice again in the future, I promise not to withhold any information from you. Not sure how much that is worth to you, but that is my word as a Druid and I plan on sticking to it."
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Kokuten
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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Percy let out a genuine laugh at that, a guffaw that left him somewhat off-balance in his own bed, were it not for his hand resting Ruarc's shoulder. More color came to his face now, perhaps his energy coming back to him with the more spirited conversation. His smile stayed as the moment passed, and took his hand back to wipe a tear from his eye.

"You sound like my dad," said Percival, "He doesn't let much get past him, and he's quite the type to bring out those same kind of honorable words." That remaining hand went to his head to scratch a little itch rising. "I appreciate the offer, Ruarc, I really do. I'm going to need another set of arms to replace the one I lost... I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it."

The boy's expression became wistful at that, his eyes staring blankly at the wall. Then, he suddenly continued.

"But, it's probably going to better for us to keep our heads down for a couple months. This incident set off a lot of alarms, especially in the Japan area. The forces that be took notice of what happened, even if they don't know what exactly happened. I'm sure I'll be asked questions of how I actually lost my arm, but so far the pity-route will keep further investigation off my back. For now, it's best to hide what implications you may have, should anyone find themselves curious."
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Straken
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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Now those were words that Ruarc took to heart. He wasn't being absolved of what he had done anymore than he was being admonished, but instead the two had together agreed to move past the shortcoming. Leaving what was in the past be it seemed easier now to move on, and slowly but surely the weight in Ruarc's chest began to dissipate.

"Now now Percy, believe me, if there is one thing I am good at it is keeping a low profile," Ruarc said as he tried a bit of sarcastic humor. "Though I know what you are saying. Here's hoping that should be an easy task, keeping my head down. At the very least I can try and stay as far under the radar as a six foot European Irish Druid with a bird on his shoulder can here in Japan; a month or two'll be nothing at all. Besides, it might give me time to work more on planning some yard designs for Raiko's place."

Trailing off, Ruarc wondered what to say next, but having never been much of a conversationalist to begin with was drawing a bit of a blank. Then after a slight outward pause he thought of something.

"Hey, ya know what?" Ruarc started. "Once it seems wise for us to all get together again, we should see about taking a trip with the whole lot of us. Besides school it seems the only time we ever really hang out is when we are facing some unpleasant, magical based situation. Maybe a trip'll be just what the doctor ordered, pardon the fact that we are in a hospital right now. We could unwind, no training, no fighting, just enjoy the company."
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Kokuten
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Re: [Hospital] Visiting Hours

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Percival shot Ruarc a contemplative, and troubled stare.

"I'm not all that good at social meetings," carried on Percy, rubbing his chin with this fingers, "There was that trip to the ice cream shop with Coco and Duncan, but that was mostly an attempt to pull information from Duncan... Er..." He tapped his fist into his palm, except he couldn't, and instead awkwardly tapped his leg. "I know. We could have a group building exercise."

At this point the boy's eyes had lit up substantially, as he had become very excited. "Yes yes! We could build a sanctum. We've got all the mages we need to build almost anywhere we want, the only issue would be the gate to get into it, and where to put it. The whole planar separation is necessary for a genuine sanctum. As long as we open up a proper gate, we can make a bubble on a different plane... And... From there it would be whatever area we put the gate, I think. Then we could spend the whole day carving and building the inside! Inscriptions, runes, desks! The whole shibang!" The Font paused for a moment to catch his breath before pressing his point on, "Then we could study, experiment, and theorize all we wanted!"
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